The Samsung Galaxy S II was arguably the best smartphone of 2011, with its super sized display, beefed up specs, and various model builds including the Galaxy Nexus for Verizon Wireless. While the S II was announced at Mobile World Congress in February 2011 only to launch a few months later, Samsung decided to hold off on announcing the follow-up Galaxy S III until closer to the device’s launch.

A report from ZDNet Korea indicates that the wait may soon be over. According to the report, Samsung will be showing off the Galaxy S III sometime this month, with the device set to go on sale in April. If previous rumors hold up, we should see the S III launched simultaneously in 50 major networks, perhaps including the United States. As you might recall, the Galaxy S II launched in the U.S. several months after it launched around the world, so hopefully we’ll be able to get our hands on the S III at the same time as our neighbors across the pond this time around.

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VERY excited about this phone! I REALLY hope that the previously-published renders are very close to what the actual device is. If they can manage a 4.8″ screen in a device smaller than the Galaxy Nexus, that will be AWESOME!

I have a Galaxy Nexus. I’m not looking to replace it but I have a couple upgrades coming up and nothing to do with them. Seems like a good way to use one of them! :-P

Now all of this being said, I’m not exactly expecting VZW to get this. Samsung released late on VZW due to the Galaxy Nexus. All other carriers didn’t get that so they’ve gotten nothing since the SGS2. So them getting the SGS3 makes sense.

I got the Galaxy S II in October so no upgrade with that line. I got the Galaxy Note a week ago, so no upgrade on that line either. good thing I got that HTC inspire laying around !!! time to upgrade !

@Jaxidian
I agree, its been awhile since Ive been this worked up about a phone, not since the Nexus S lol.
And before I was against VZW but at this point I dont care, especially if Big Red is getting Data Share plans.

@trinhbo – I’m no english major, but last time I checked “should” != “will”. There’s a whole slew of things that “should” happen, but that doesn’t mean they will. If you can provide valid evidence, even a source, that claims they WILL launch in 50 areas at once, you win.

For one thing; what would be the point? 720p is already more than enough pixels for a screen that size, especially if they can do it without using pentile (which I’m unsure of).

All you’d do by cramming in so many pixels is a) increase the cost of the device, b) slow down the processor’s ability to render graphics on it, and c) waste battery as you’ll need to clock the GPU higher to deal with that many extra pixels.

You need to think outside the box. Smartphones are quickly evolving. Part of this evolution is interaction with other devices; one of these devices being TVs. 1080 Netflix through my phone to a TV that doesn’t have a Netflix-capable device? 1080 gaming on my TV through my phone? 1080 presentations? The potential is limitless. All smartphone need to become 1080-capable as soon as possible.

this is bull, do you realize your tv screen needs to be larger than 50″ to see an appreciable difference between 720 and 1080? at 4.8″, what benefit would there be to the naked eye that would compensate for all the negatives @faun mentioned?

Gee, using your method of thinking, Apple and their iPad3 resolution will be absolute idiots cause we won’t be able to see the difference and the battery life is going to be abysmal on it. Yep, you’ve got it right………

You don’t need a 1080p resolution on your phone’s display to output 1080p through HDMI, just a window manager that can handle two desktops and obviously a powerful GPU. Examples of both have been demonstrated lately.

Oh get real, we are an enthusiest group here, and I honestly would never even think of hooking up my phone to my TV to run Netflix lol. Not to mention anyone that would want 1080P Netflix on their 1080P TV, must have at least ONE thing like a PS3, Wii, XBox 360, Blu Ray Player, or if you’re like me, my actual TV that plays Netflix and a bunch of other stuff. Most people are NOT going to care if they can hook up their phone to their TV so it can pump out 1080P. They JUST put the first 720p phones out last holiday season and there is NO WAY they are gonna put a 1080p phone out, it’s simply a waste of cpum gpu, pixels, power, and I could go on…

Everyone doesn’t need or want the latest and greatest. That being said, if it’s the greatest I want it and will leave Sprint to get it if I have to. If not, I’ll happily take the G-Nex without a doubt.

People need to stop dissing and comparing everything to the GNex. It was announced and shown off last October, and released in November (yes I know just the US had to wait till 12/15). But we are already 5 months into it and almost at the half year point. I’m glad I got it the day it comes out, and I will keep it till at least late summer, but yeah, I wouldn’t get it right now if the only thing I wanted was the latest specs. I do know from owning it though that I will NEVER buy a phone with a locked bootloader again. I didn’t think I would really care that much, but now that I have had that freedom, the thought of being under some manufacturers lock and key is out of the question for me personally. But I just wish everyone would quit comparing phones coming out in 2 months to the GNex, which by then will be about 7 months old. OF COURSE the new phones are gonna be faster. XTRA XTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT, A PHONE 7 MONTHS OLDER THEN ONE COMING OUT IN APRIL IS SAID TO BE SLOWER THEN THIS NEW PHONE

I agree, I have my doubts too, especially after seeing how HTC implemented its new camera….But I will give it the benefit of the doubt until I can see it perform. Regardless it will be a good time for upgraders this summer.

The best screen on any smart phone with true black super amoled plus Whatever the resolution.
16GB or more of Storage space.
The dude from cyanogen would have had a hand in the new version of ICS touch wiz.
Camera performance to improve on the current 8mp camera…

Without mentioning performance this phone gets people exited because the gs2 is still fast as hell compared to the gnex which is around 6 months newer than it.

The HTC line leaves me cold and given the choice I’d still but i9100 over the One X.

If they give users an option for choosing stock android over touchwiz to go with that awesome hardware that’ll be great! I’d even personally be willing to pay extra to have an option of stock android over touchwiz. Are you listening Sammy??

This would be the ultimate. I think it would be great if the user was given the choice of TW or Vanilla right when you set it up. Either that, or default it to TW and then let the user choose if they want vanilla android. The biggest issue I see here is updates and how they would roll them out. If they could roll out updates to the vanilla users quicker, this would seriously bring tons of people to Samsung devices.

I say TW by default because the majority of the userbase they’re targeting (ie, not those of us on this site) probably prefer TW features over vanilla android.

Just to hold myself over from extreme jealousy: It’s great that they are introducing the Exynos 4412 into phones but I’ll drool when they pull out the BIG GUNS!!! The Exynos 5420!!! MUhHAhahAA If these rumored specs hold true, a 1080p screen will be a thing of beauty @_@

If the phone dimensions are very large then this is not the must have phone for me, there maybe 1 phone that can compete with this though & that might be the Motorola Atrix 3 with a possibly smaller dimensions that this which will be a bonus.

Samsung aint playing no games…Releasing all the big guns at nearly a quarter apart…the S2 just came out ’round 4th quarter last year. Nexus came December, then the Note just came, now the S3, later the GBeam with 2 new tablets…If you dont call that pure dominate presence then idk what is…gotta love Samsung for that.

In a way, I see your point, but these devices they’re releasing don’t come close to serving the same purpose. The Note is in a category of it’s own, as is the GNex, and the SIII simply is the equivalent of the HTC One X; super high powered, top of the line phone. The GNex and Note aren’t trying to fit into that category, IMO.

I’ll be honest though, I do like the way HTC is heading. I was hoping for Samsung innards combined with HTC build quality, and if the ceramic casing holds up, that could be exactly what I was looking for.

The Galaxy SII came out April 2011. The North American release was much later.

Just because they release tons of devices doesn’t mean they have a dominating presence. I would say it leads to an extreme amount of confusion.

Their strategy is somewhat annoying from my perspective. They have the Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 7.0, Tab 7.0 Plus, Tab 7.7, Tab 8.9, Tab 10.1, Tab 2, Note Tab, and even a rumored 11.3″ Tab. On the phone side they have the GNote, Gnex, S2. On the media player side they have the Wifi 4.0, Wifi 5.0 and Wifi 4.3. They even have a specific PMP model for Europe. You may think the devices with the largest screen sizes have the best specs. Certainly not the case. Do not get more started on this.

It’s great they have unique devices. The Note is a hybrid, the Gnex is a perfect blend, and the Tab is a tablet. But why can’t they just stick to a much simpler strategy. Why not just have a fleet of these 3 devices but designed around 3 budgets; low, mid, and high?

I am definitely not getting this piece of junk if it comes with terrible specs like this….I mean Mali 400 gpu…..the same gpu on the Galaxy S II??? Are they crazy? Samsung must be out of their minds. I thought they would feature the Exynos 5250 cortex A15 processor that would blow the minds of people. But they are featuring this junk? No thank you on the Galaxy S III if it does come with these crappy specs.

Understood, still would be better if they released the 5250 over the 4412. I think most people buy into the hype of “quadcore” not realizing that a dual-core Cortex A15 gives one at the very minimum double the performance of a Cortex A9 Quadcore.

This is why I am excited …
Its the SII form with more screen real estate based on no bezel technology.
NOW … what does that mean for the next version of the Note?!
My friends are looking at me like a stupid rat, for asking for a big screen phone for ages and still not buying the Note. All I can say is that I want a ~6″ screen in my pocket. And this seems more realistic now than ever before.
Waiting for the Note2 announcement to decide. The screen must be with less bezel around 5.8″.
This is for me like mobile tech porn.

And will the browser still default to mobile view with no real permanent way to switch to full view aside from a command line that only affects the current window and only during the current browsing session? Because, you know, I just love that.

Same here. Initially I resolved to wait for the Galaxy S III but the Nexus simply proved too attractive to pass up. I won’t replace it this summer either but am looking forward to seeing how this one turns out nonetheless.

Will the ceramic casing be light enough while being string enough? Ceramics are very strong against a lot of things but when it comes to a direct force (i.e. drop on a hard surface) they tend to be fragile. My another worry is that how well ceramic will be at heat dissipation. I hope they solved these problems because I’m excited about SIII

I hope this comes with the ARM Mali-T604 GPU. I’ve browsed around and it seems like this is a key point of speculation (wiki has some reports of the T604. even earlier reports on androidandme include the T604 in the rumored conclusion). It would be awesome if it does feature iT!!!!!!!!!! XDDDDDD

I am happy with my Galaxy Nexus no doubt but with 2lines already on Verizon I will hold out just to see what takes place. I could see myself with the Galaxy Journal later this summer or the Nexus tablet whenever that comes out. I would love to see the Galaxy S3 come to Verizon this summer just being able to lay in the cut and wait it out for the best product and price if buying new feels great.

Gotta think 2gb of ram will be real mean and blow past any device that come to market this year. Let’s say this Exynos doesn’t make it into the Gs3 in the states even if they go with the snapdragon s4 with the 2gb of ram this will blow past the htc one x or any other device making it to the states. All devices making it to the states will only be snapdragon s4 dualcore that’s not too much better than what’s on the market today.

You really have no idea what you’re talking about. Even with the resource intensive Sense UI on top of Android, 1 GB of RAM is more than enough for the system and apps. Even on my mother’s completely stock Samsung Epic, with it’s measly 512 MB of RAM, is more than enough as there’s usually more than 100 MB of RAM left free at all times. Putting 1.5 or more GB of RAM into a phone is not only overkill, but stupid. It’s like those idiots who put more than 8 GB of RAM in their laptops and desktops when all they do is search the web and play Solitaire. The only reason you’ll ever need more RAM is when you’ve opened 20 or so applications and are doing something on all of them at once, something that is practically impossible given the current 5″ screen size.
On top of all that, where the hell are you getting 2 GB of RAM? In none of the rumors about the GS3 has there been ANY mention of RAM. You sir, are a total joke.
On another note, not only will the GS3 “blow past” your Galaxy Nexus, but so will the HTC One X, in case you were wondering.